Long-awaited Lamoille Valey Rail Trail will launch in spring

Lamoille Valley endeavor gets Act 250 permit for first phase

Oct. 27, 2012

Laird MacDowell, chairman of the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail, walks a portion of the trail in Jeffersonville this past summer. Project organizers have received an Act 250 permit for the first phase of a project creating a 96-mile multi-use trail from St. Johnsbury to Swanton. / EMILY McMANAMY/Free Press file photo

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Free Press Staff Writer

Organizers of the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail can’t wait to get started on the border-to-border, four-season recreation path they have been waiting to build for a decade.

“We might be able to get the first bridge in this fall,” Laird MacDowell of Jeffersonville, chairman of the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail Committee. He was referring to a bridge that will connect the old railway bed with a bike path in St. Johnsbury.

On Thursday, the District 7 Environmental Commission issued an Act 250 land use permit for phase 1 of the 93-mile trail to be built on the bed of the former St. Johnsbury and Lamoille railroad. Phase 1 covers 44 miles of trail in three distinct sections: St. Johnsbury to Danville, Morrisville to Cambridge and Sheldon to Swanton.

The commission also reviewed the master plan for all 93 miles, and ruled that phases 2 and 3 meet some environmental criteria in Act 250. Both later phases will require further review on other criteria including aesthetics , the commission ruled.

“This is excellent new for VAST and the recreational community,” Alexis Nelson said Friday. She is executive director of the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers, which leases the old rail bed from the state. “We hope to break ground in Morrisville in the spring.”

Construction includes replacing damaged or washed-out bridges and culverts, installing drainage, clearing brush and putting on a new gravel surface.

Snowmobiles already use much of the route in winter but the rail bed is too rough and brush-covered in most places for use in summer by bicyclists, walkers and horseback riders. VAST leased the trail from the state in 2003 and has been seeking to make improvements for year-round use ever since.

Construction was delayed during lease negotiations, design, environmental studies and a fight with several landowners, first over whether the project required an Act 250 permit and – after VAST lost that battle — over the permit itself.

“Yes, I’m happy, but I’m not happy it took so long,” MacDowell said last week. Like other supporters of the trail he was frustrated by the many delays.

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In issuing the permit, the district commission rejected the argument by Kate Scarlott and Rob MacLeod of Walden that snowmobile fumes would cause undue air pollution and snowmobile noise would interrupt their sleep and disrupt their lives. The rail trail passes within 50 feet of their rural home.

“I do not wish to talk to the press,” Kate Scarlott responded Friday when contacted by email. Two other landowners who shared Scarlott’s concerns could not be reached Saturday.

Phase 1 construction does not include the portion of the trail that passes Scarlott’s residence. The district commission said it would revisit the noise question on aesthetic grounds when VAST seeks a permit for Phases 2 and 3.

Escalating cost

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., obtained a $5.2 million earmark for the rail trail in 2005 and greeted the district commission’s decision with applause.

“The trail will be a huge attraction for tourists who come to Vermont in the winter to snowmobile or ski, or in the summer to bike and hike,” he said. “These tourists will stay in our hotels and inns, eat in local restaurants, visit other Vermont attractions and buy Vermont products.”

However, the cost of reconstructing the entire trail has risen substantially, to about $10 million, according to MacDowell. Private fundraising and in-kind contributions will be needed to make up the 20 percent match to qualify for the federal funds, and will have to cover the entire remaining cost when the federal money runs out.

MacDowell said fundraising has been stalled during the environmental review.

“The only way to get more money is to have completed sections so people can see it is a real project and not some fantasy,” he said. “Everything has been in suspended animation for a few years.”

Starting as soon as possible on the Morristown-Cambridge section will help he said. The 17-mile stretch needs less repair than other sections and runs through a fairly populated area so “it will be used right away,” he said.

Nelson said completing all parts of phase 1 is expected to take two years. She said her group is still reviewing the 72-page environmental permit to make sure it is well understood.

“We’re pleased with the permit so far, but we’re still going through it with a fine-tooth comb,” she said. “We’ll be even happier when we can break ground.”